Last weekend I floated the Chulitna River with a large group of guys. It was a bachelor party, which means “what happens on the river, stays on the river.” Sorry, no stories here.
The only reason I’m posting this is because I use this website as my outdoor journal. When I can’t remember […]
Category: XCFeeds
A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.
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Chulitna Float Trip
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Knee Surgery
Knee Surgery
Well, after over a month of trying to diagnose and mend my knee issues, I am finally on my way back to running again. This afternoon I had arthroscopic surgery on my left knee. The surgery was a success. Dr. Pearson was able to repair my lateral meniscus. ”Repair” being the key word because this means that I will be able to return to running at the same intensity levels as before after rehab. Not going to lie, I was extremely nervous that he was going to have to do a meniscectomy, which would have ended my running forever.
Now I am back at home, resting fairly comfortably and continuously icing my knee . I will be on crutches for 3 weeks with 50% weight bearing beginning now. For the next month I won’t be bending my knee over 90 degrees per doctors orders, but as soon as my port holes (holes for the scope and tools) are healed, I will be in the pool beginning my deep water running.
Time for pain killers…
Dan
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Samantha Lea Liebsch
Congratulations to Matt and Marybeth Liebsch for having a beautiful, healthy daughter on Tuesday night! It was very exciting to have this going on during our camp.
Samantha Lea Liebsch
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Topher Sabot
img src=”http://17.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422ov2srrjngdSGCIEo1_400.jpg”/br/br/Topher Sabot
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Matt Voisin
img src=”http://5.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422ov2s55hqSEReuKEo1_400.jpg”/br/br/Matt Voisin
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The Johnny5: Fasterskier.com / Topher Sabot + Matt Voisin
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Update
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We are currently unable to post pictures on our website so the blogs are not as exciting and have unfortunately become less frequent. As the 2009/2010 ski season gets underway, we will begin to write posts again, but they may lack photos for a little while.
May was a very enjoyable month. We spent a lot of time in Marquette, training, working, and hanging out with friends. Heather Zimmerman came to visit Marquette and we made a trip out to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Bryan and I helped Chris Cook conduct a very successful double pole clinic in Minocqua, WI that you can read about HERE.
I spent the first few days of June in Rhinelander for Bryan’s 26th birthday. Then, Tanya Cook and I drove to Bloomer, WI to spend some time with Emalea Landgraf, my dear friend and roommate in college. We then continued on to Lakeville, MN where we got to babysit my mom’s new French Spaniel puppy Kaya. She was 7 weeks old and 6 pounds when we met her. Now she is 9 weeks and has almost doubled in size. She is absolutely perfect. I also got a chance to catch up with my Aunt Kim and Uncle Bill who live in St. Paul and do some biking with my Dad before CXC Camp #2 started up in Marine, MN.
Currently, I am training in Marine with my CXC teammates. Last week was a pretty large week of training with 2 threshold interval sessions, 1 set of harder intervals, and lots of strength. This week will be more of a recovery week for me, and I am looking forward to doing some swimming in the pool where we are staying and beating the Juniors at volleyball.
Chapel Rock
Pictured Rocks
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AP photo.
img src=”http://20.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422osh55m0zWjoozujo1_r1_400.jpg”/br/br/AP photo.
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The Johnny5: Kikkan Randall
piThe Johnny5 represents the people that changed things for skiing in the US in the last year. You wouldn’t know it from the endless whining that consumes us in the Spring, but this WAS a solid year for American Skiing. (Capitalized for a reason.) That didn’t come by accident. So here they are in no particular order the (roughly) five folks that pushed change in 08 / 09. We’ll do one a day for the week. We’ll also include some tidbits at the end of the Johnny5 from the nominations that are sure to entertain. Stay tuned./i/p
pHad Andy Newell or Kris Freeman finished second at the World Championships, the long and tired “Does the US suck at skiing?” articles on Fasterskier and throughout various internet sites would likely have been put to rest this year. Had we seen Noah Hoffman win at World Juniors or even another American male finish on top at the NCAA championships, those might have been decent enough finishes to bode well for the “future” of US skiing. When people write “US skiing future”, they mean dudes. At a World Cup not many seasons ago, the head of another (as in, not-US) country’s ski service said on the ski test track, loud enough to barely be heard. “This is ok- it’s for the women. We’ll use their data for the real race.” Inevitably whichever gender shows up first is going to act as a test crew, but to be overt about it is patriarchal, mysogynistic and short sighted. This makes it tougher for women to succeed in skiing, which makes Kikkan Randall’s results and efforts even more significant. To the endless ponderers of would-be World Cup success, if you want to improve skiing in the US, read every comment you post considering only the women’s fields. Do this and improvement will happen in skiing where it is at its weakest: the depth of the women’s fields. While we have stong examples like Kikkan, Liz Morgan, the depth of the field falls off quickly. Too quickly. Who wants to be in a sport where women are so overtly an afterthought? Kikkan Randall knows this and is doing something about it./p
pMore than her World Championship finish (or her World Cup win from Rybinks in ‘08), more than her sheer committment to skiing, even more than her position as the FIS rep for all things female, Kikkan is changing the game by empowering women to revel in skiing. Kikkan partnered with Chandra Crawford’s -
Still Alive
I apologize for the lack of updates lately but I have been absolutely swamped with training over the last few weeks.
I am back in Lake Placid now and will be here for the majority of the summer. Luckily, our next team training camp will be held here, so I don’t have to travel until our August Europe camp. I will spend over 8 months away from home this year, so anytime that I get here is a big bonus for me.
When I returned from our first camp in Whistler, BC, I started what will be my biggest training block of the year. We break our training down into different periods called “blocks” and each block consists of four weeks. I completed my last block on Sunday and it was both the biggest block in terms of hours that I will do this year and it was also the most hours that I have ever trained in four consecutive weeks.
This period was a huge challenge for me, and I am really excited to have it behind me now. By the end of the fourth week I was absolutely exhausted. If I was not out training during this time, I was either in my bed sleeping or eating. Actually, it was amazing for me to see my appetite pick up from week to week. I have seen this before but never to this extent. By the fourth week I felt like I could never really get full and if I did get full, it seemed that I was ready to eat again within 30 minutes or so. Even though I finished the block a few days ago, my appetite has still been super high and I would imagine that it will take another few days before it drops back down to a normal level.
I am now in my first real recovery week of the training year and I am enjoying every second! Although I still have to train during my recovery week, I will train less than half of the hours that I train in one of my “normal” weeks. It’s super important for me to take these recovery weeks; without these weeks I would never make it to the season in one piece. During the first day or two of my recovery week I try and stay away from anything that has to do with sport. After that, I am usually pretty busy catching up on all of the things that I put off during my training weeks.
Our second team training camp will start in one week. We will have the full coaching staff and six athletes here for over two weeks. It will be great to be back with the team for a few weeks, especially when I can stay in my own bed!
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Getting adjusted to the altitude
After spending a week in Minnesota I made the trip out to Park City, Utah. I will be living and training out here for the next 5 weeks with the U.S. Ski Team coaches and a few of the top athletes in the country.
The last couple days, and this up coming week is going to be pretty easy training-wise because I am doing some serious adjusting to the altitude. Park City is at about 6000 feet, and since I live and train at sea level, this is a big adjustment. The first week or two at altitude it is extremely important to take care of your body, and you have to be careful to not push it too hard. If you do, then you will be tired and will not be able to train effectively for many weeks… So for the next week, I am just going to focus on adjusting and getting myself ready for the awesome training weeks to follow!
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